Using the Rorschach for exploring the concept of transitional space within the political context of the Middle East

• Published in: International journal of applied psychoanalytic studies Vol. 2; no. 1; pp. 40 - 57
• Main Authors: Tibon, Shira, Handelzalts, Jonathan E., Weinberger, Yifat
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.03.2005; Wiley
• Subjects: conflict resolution; Middle-East; potential space; Reality-Fantasy Scale (RFS); Rorschach
• ISSN: 1742-3341; 1556-9187; 1556-9187
• DOI: 10.1002/aps.30

The paper presents an application of a new Rorschach index, the Reality–Fantasy Scale (RFS) for evaluating the extent to which educated Israeli Jews and Arabs manifest a similar adaptive and functional ability in preserving psychic transitional space. The RFS is a psychodynamic oriented diagnostic tool, based on Exner's (1993) Comprehensive System for scoring and interpreting the Rorschach, and designed to operationalize Winnicott's (1971) concept of potential space. The scale is based on a paradigm that conceptualizes the Rorschach task as inviting the subject to enter the intermediate transitional space between inner and outer reality. The RFS ranges from −5 to +5, and a score of zero indicates adaptive and functional use of potential space. The results point to a basic similarity between two groups of Jewish (n = 41) and Arab (n = 14) non‐patients both using adaptively inner space between reality and fantasy. These results are discussed in terms of current psychoanalytic thought of relationality, political psychology research, cross‐cultural personality assessment, and the empirical study of psychoanalytic concepts. Copyright © 2005 Whurr Publishers Ltd.